Captain Alexander Hood (April 23, 1758 – April 2, 1798) was an officer of the Royal Navy, one of several members of the Hood family to serve at sea. April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ...

He entered the Royal Navy in 1767, and accompanied Captain James Cook in his second voyage of exploration from 1772 to 1775. During the American Revolutionary War, under Admirals Richard Howe and George Rodney he distinguished himself in the West Indies, and at the Battle of the Saintes on April 12, 1782, he was in command of one of Rodney's frigates. Under his brother, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, he then proceeded to the Mona passage, where he captured the French corvette Ceres. Hood became close friends with the commander of his prize, the Baron de Peroy, and during the peace of 1783–1792 paid a long visit to France as his former prisoner's guest. British explorer James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen of her North American colonies. ... Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (March 8, 1726 - August 5, 1799) was a British admiral. ... Admiral Lord George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, 1719–1792 by Jean-Laurent Mosnier, painted 1791, George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney (February 1718 – May 24, 1792), was a British naval officer. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... The Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1783, shows Samuel Hoods Barfleur, center, attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris, right. ... April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Sailing frigates were 4th, 5th, or 6th-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ... For the automobile, see Chevrolet Corvette. ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars, ill health kept him at home, and it was not until 1797 that he went afloat again. His first experience was bitter; his ship, the 74-gun third-rate Mars, was unenviably prominent in the Spithead mutiny. The French Revolutionary Wars occurred between the outbreak of war between the French Revolutionary government and Austria in 1792 and the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. ... This is one of six ratings (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th) in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ... In this painting of the Battle of Trafalgar by Nicholas Pocock, Mars is in the right foreground, just behind the captured Spanish ship Bahama. ... There were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. ...

On April 2, 1798 there occurred the famous duel of Mars with the French ship Hercule, fought in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Britanny. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Hood the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal force, both seventy-fours, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred men. On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded. Among the dead was Captain Hood, mortally wounded in the thigh. He is said to have died just as the sword of the French captain L'Heriter was being put in his hand. L'Heriter later died of his wounds. April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Pointe du Raz is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic from western Brittany. ... This is about the region in France; for other meanings of Brittany and Bretagne, see Brittany (disambiguation). ... The Seventy-four was a two-decked sailing ship of the line nominally carrying 74 guns. ...

See also

• His brother, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood (1762–1814).
• His cousin once removed, Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (1724–1816)
• His cousin once removed, Admiral Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport (1726–1814).

Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, 1724–1816 by James Northcote, painted 1784. ...

References

• William James, Naval History of Great Britain, 1793–1827.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.